This strike carried the brutal legacy of both Kaido of the Beasts and Shiki the Golden Lion—a wide-range, indiscriminate assault meant to devastate everything in its path.
Laser beams, flaming dragon's breath, spears of lightning, and spheres of venom blasted outward in all directions. Shiki and Saint Paynes, along with the others, were forced to scatter, barely escaping the onslaught unleashed by the crimson dragon form of Souta Kiryuu.
Without slowing, Souta lunged straight at the hovering figure of Shiki in the skies.
"Golden Lion! It's an honor to finally meet you, old master!" Souta roared, his tone mocking even as his massive body hurtled forward.
Caught midair while dodging the barrage of energy waves, Shiki had no chance to evade. Souta's colossal frame slammed into him with brutal force.
"Gwah!!"
Blood burst from Shiki's mouth, his ship's rudder embedded in his skull rattling violently as the crushing impact left his head spinning.
Seizing the opening, Souta clawed at him. With sharp talons infused with monstrous strength, he ripped into Shiki's arm, drawing blood and scraping flesh, quickly gathering the precious samples.
"Get off me, brat!!"
The agony jolted Shiki awake, rage replacing his dizziness. His legs—ending in the famed blades Oto and Kogarashi—lashed upward in a deadly strike. Two golden slashes of sword aura roared through the air, threatening to split Souta in half.
Souta only laughed. "Hahaha! Forgive me—I just got a little excited meeting a legend like you!"
With one talon clad in Armament Haki, Souta parried the twin sword slashes, letting the force fling him backward. Flames from his Lunarian bloodline instantly sealed the minor wounds, and he tucked away Shiki's blood and flesh into a special containment vessel prepared by Vegapunk.
"You damn little pest… you're trying to kill me, aren't you?" Shiki snarled, glaring at the dragon who had just stolen from him.
"Consider this a peace offering," Souta said lightly, tossing a crystalline dandelion-shaped blood crystal toward Shiki. "A gift from me to an elder I deeply respect."
"Bah! I don't need your worthless trinkets!" Shiki spat, cleaving the blood crystal apart with another slash. His eyes darkened as he realized Souta had stolen fragments of his very flesh. A heavy, ominous suspicion took root in his mind.
"Saint Paynes! Kill both Souta Kiryuu and Shiki the Golden Lion!" the God Knight bellowed, fury burning in his eyes. Souta was their primary target, but Shiki, bearer of the Float-Float Fruit, had always been a thorn in the World Government's side.
Souta smirked. "Golden Lion, want me to lend a claw? We could crush them together." His gaze lingered on Paynes and the CP agents, weighing whether the so-called knight possessed a Devil Fruit ability. Seeing no sign of anything particularly valuable, his interest waned.
"Forget it. These trash aren't worth my time. Better to find blood from someone like Big Mom… or maybe even Kuzan or Dragon." His mind churned with calculation.
"Stay back! That God Knight is my prey!" Shiki snapped, misreading Souta's intentions. He thought the dragon was after the Pluton blueprints. The thought of Souta harvesting his blood filled him with unease. This brat was dangerous—too dangerous. Someday, Shiki vowed, he would uncover Souta's secrets and obliterate everything tied to him. But now wasn't the time. The blueprints came first.
"Hahaha! Then I won't disturb you, old master," Souta said, withdrawing with mock politeness. He soared away, laughing, already envisioning the possibility of swooping back to snatch Shiki himself should the Golden Lion falter.
On the ground below, Souta descended into the chaos of the CP units. His claws and flames tore through black-suited agents, ripping them apart without hesitation. Blood sprayed, smoke rose, and he carved a path deliberately closer to the battle where Big Mom and her children were wreaking havoc.
Then his eyes caught a glimpse of Charlotte Brûlée—nervous, hiding at the edge of the fight, clutching a towering mirror strapped to her back. Unlike her siblings, she hadn't joined the fray, her frail combat strength relegating her to support. Souta's grin widened.
Perfect.
Crushing a CP5 agent in his claws, he vanished from sight, turning invisible as he streaked toward Brûlée.
"Scary… I just want to go back to Totto Land… back to Katakuri-nii's side…" Brûlée whimpered, her crone-like face twisted with fear. Two Homies in the form of chess-piece soldiers stood by her, pitiful guards against the slaughter raging around them.
Then—whump! A heavy blow. Brûlée's eyes rolled back as she collapsed, her mirror shattering beneath her. The two Homies were snuffed out in an instant, crushed by Souta's talons.
"Paramecia… the Mirror-Mirror Fruit. A fine spatial ability. In some ways, even more versatile than the Door-Door Fruit."
Souta reappeared, carving a shallow wound across Brûlée's arm, carefully collecting her blood and tissue.
"No need to kill you," he said almost cheerfully, pressing a blood crystal into her wound to heal it. Then, with a shimmer, he vanished once more.
Minutes later, Brûlée awoke, pale and trembling. Her Homie guards were gone, the mirror broken. Shaken, she scrambled into the ruins, desperate to find another intact mirror to escape through.
Meanwhile, Souta returned to the Ark Maxim. The samples he had secured—Kaido's lieutenant King's Lunarian blood, Shiki's blood and flesh, and now Brûlée's—were placed into carefully prepared storage.
"Ancient Zoan Pteranodon… Lunarian lineage… the Float-Float Fruit… and now the Mirror-Mirror Fruit." Souta chuckled darkly. "An excellent harvest."
His laughter echoed as he considered the next phase of the Seraphim Project. This battle, orchestrated around the lure of the Pluton blueprints, had already paid off beyond expectation. Drawing out Big Mom, Shiki, and so many other legends at once—yes, his gamble had been perfect.